Create a teaching app: Benefits and steps

Want to know about the steps to create a teaching app? You have come to the right place. Read further to know everything about it. Having an online presence using a website is not enough in today’s digital world. Success-driven online education businesses have to narrow down even further on their target audience to create a truly engaging digital experience. What can be more engaging than a mobile app! People would rather download an app for the entire duration of what they plan to achieve rather than log in to a website on their phones/desktops.

There are over 500,000 e-learning apps online – over 200,000 on the App Store and 300,000 on Google Play. There are a whole lot of benefits; both to the consumer (students) and the business owners(online tutors) if the choice is to create a teaching app. But first, you need to hire an app developer to create a robust and quality teaching app. We will begin this blog post with the benefits followed by the steps to create a teaching app..

Table of Contents

1. Benefits of creating teaching app for students
2. Benefits of creating teaching app for tutors
3. Essential features in a teaching app
4. Steps to create a teaching app
5. What to avoid while creating a teaching app?
6. How can Learnyst help in creating an app?

Benefits of creating a teaching app for students 

• Freedom to study at their own pace 
• Less perceived pressure of education
• Better digital literacy 
• Better engagement with the course materials and tutors 
• Exposure to interactive teaching methods 

Benefits of creating a teaching app for  the business 

• The total cost of education is relatively less when compares to traditional teaching methods since there is no incremental cost of distributing textbooks, transportation, and maintenance. 
• You can better achieve your marketing goals using an App’s “Refer a Friend” feature. 
• It saves up a lot of time since students are learning at their own pace; giving you more time to focus on developing more courses and expanding the business. 
• It also allows you to track the performance of each student using advanced analytics.

Further Reading: Why should you opt for app-based coaching in your academy?

Essential features in a teaching app 

Generally speaking, the kind of feature you would want on your course’s app is entirely dependent on the course. However, the following are the must-have features on any learning app that you will be building. 

Login/Signup

As far as the digitally savvy users are concerned, having only a single login or signup option is old school. Give them multiple options like email, phone number, or their social media accounts to log in or signup for a course using your app. 

User profile

A section for users to enter their basic personal details like name, email ID, phone number, and age is mandatory. In the long run, this first-party data can also help you do some strong analysis. 

Learning Materials

All the required learning materials related to a course must be easily accessible through the app. This includes video, audio, downloadable documents, etc. 

Push Notifications

This is another standard feature for mobile apps. Speaking from our experience, people are very likely to click on a push notification. In the context of eLearning, you can notify your students about new lectures, new courses, discounts, or any other course updates.   

Social network integration

People love to share their achievements on their social media accounts. This is why the social share feature is a must on your learning app. 

Search bar

Users should be able to search for something they can’t readily find on your app. This greatly increases the chances of them using the app for a longer period of time. 

Payments

Students must be able to make payments securely without any resistance. If payments don’t go through because of reasons beyond your control like “Bank server error”, make it known to the students. Also include multiple modes of payment including credit and debit cards and payment gateways like PayPal. 

Blogs 

You can also make an app for yourself, not just about the course itself. Also, include a general blog section that students can read at their leisure. Topics can include anything that your students might find interesting. 

Feedback section

No app is perfect from the get-go, and no one can be a better critic than the users themselves. This is why there must be a dedicated feedback feature for them to give in their honest feedback which you should use to continuously improve your app.

Personalization 

A study showed that people expect more personalized content online. This includes your courses too. Customize educational material, educational content, and curriculum to address the needs and learning methods of each student. Students must be encouraged to select their own objectives, move their own pace and discuss with educators and fellow learners. 

Steps to create a learning app 

Building an app for an online course is not an easy task to finish in a hurry. There is a considerable amount of research and development that goes behind creating teaching apps. Let us look at all the steps for creating an app for your eLearning course or business. 

1. The first task is to clearly define your target audience because you can’t target everyone. Conduct extensive research to find out who they are, what their interests and goals are, and why they should use your app. 
2. The next step is to define your course’s mission. Is your app going to help your students learn coding or math? Your app should have a goal, and once you have it, you can create a technical specification for it. Thus, after setting goals, consider implementing monolithic architectures approach in developing your app.
3. Choose the learning formats that you want your course content to be made into. Formats can be text, audio, games, and other interactive formats. The app must be a combination of formats. 
4. Create a marketing strategy for when the app is ready to be rolled out. Leave no stone unturned and market on all channels including social media, email, and paid channels. If you do not have the time to spend on marketing, it is best to hire a marketing agency specialized in app-marketing.  
5. Every app development project requires a technical specification before development can commence. This covers all the requirements and functionality of the app in detail. Create one for the app you have in mind by consulting with experts and from the data collected from user research.
6. Selecting an app developer or no-code app builder is the most critical step in the process as this can either make or break your project. Along with the standard requirements, make sure that the developer has a proven track record and Is located in a time-zone and region that is convenient for you. The good thing is that LMS platforms like Learnyst offer a mobile app for all courses built and sold on their platform.
7. Before the app is launched, test it for any possible bugs. You can also consider allowing real users to run a test.  

What to avoid while creating a teaching app

Creating a near-perfect teaching app doesn’t mean you have to stuff every last feature into it. There are some things that are a massive no when it comes to online teaching apps. Let us take a look at them.

1. Dot not overload users with too many choices as it will result in what is known as the paradox of choice; which means that users will not be able to make an informed decision. Only present them with a limited number of relevant choices. 
2. Do not create a pseudo-educational app. It is not random numbers and jargon that make an app educational. There must be strong underlying principles and concepts to back them up. 
3. Avoid distracting elements in design, features, and also get rid of any bugs that might hinder the learning experience for your learners. 
4. Don’t make the app too entertaining as it will result in most of your students failing to achieve their goals.
5. Avoid constantly switching between subjects. This will create a lot of confusion and inconsistency in learning. Repetition makes excellence as spotting the same item in multiple contexts strengthens the learning process. 

How can Learnyst help in creating a teaching app?

Now that you have seen how to create a teaching app, it’s time for some action.

Learnyst is the one-stop shop for all things for eLearning businesses. As part of our services, we also develop custom-branded apps for your courses. Your apps will be available both on Android and iOS. This relieves you from the pain of developing and subsequently maintaining apps. If you’d like to know more about our services, get in touch now!